If you want through-the-roof results—repeatedly—analyze your repeated behaviors. Behavior is the key component of the equation that ends in you achieving your goals.
Everything starts with individual behaviors. You choose which behaviors to plant, which to nurture, and which to weed. They grow in your garden of determination and bloom into the flowers of habit that you’ve chosen. If you aren’t reaching your goals, you aren’t planting the right flowers.
Now let’s imagine you have planted the right behaviors, your garden is blossoming, and you are seeing the fruits of your labor in major goal success every day, month, and year. That’s stellar— good job! But you’re also a manager, and much of your job is helping your employees produce the right outcomes. It’s not simply about controlling your own behaviors. How do you revolutionize the habits of an entire team?
Start in the same place you would with yourself:
You probably already know what results you’re looking for; you sweat about them every day. But have you defined them in a way that’s comprehensible, and meaningful, for your employees?
Once you have, you can move on to step two, which is where the magic happens. Ask yourself this question: “In a future state in which we’ve achieved [our] goals, what would people actually do (or do differently)?” (Hull, “Getting to the Critical Few Behaviors That Can Drive Cultural Change,” 2017). Write out the behaviors of an employee who’s meeting the goals, and hone in on the ones that significantly contribute. These are the behaviors that need to get planted.
By defining the critical behaviors, you’ve laid out a plan for success. Both you and your team now know which behaviors to plant. Nurture those behaviors with both encouragement and accountability, and don’t rush the blossom. Don’t give up because it’s December and you want your flowers to bloom now. Spring is coming, and the behaviors you’ve been repeating will evolve into the high-performance culture you’ve been dreaming of. That culture will serve you entire bouquets of results—repeatedly.
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